Mark 1:21-28

I wonder what it was he said that day? Mark makes no mention of the message at all. Just the fact that it stirred things up in the synagogue. And afterwards, the people said, "He speaks as one who has authority, and not as the teachers of the law."

And they should know because they were there that morning when Jesus stood up in the synagogue to preach. And all hell broke loose.

I don't think most of us would appreciate Jesus as a preacher. The Gospel record shows that, after preaching in various synagogues, Jesus was never invited back again! Once, in his hometown of Nazareth, they even tried to kill him! Now that's what I call either a really tough audience or a really bad sermon!

When Jesus speaks, stuff happens. And its not always pleasant!

Now keep in mind that we are in the season of Epiphany. All the preaching texts are stories that help us discover the power and glory of God in Christ. They are stories that reveal important things about Jesus. Looking over the passages we have read these past Sundays, we have met Jesus as the King of the Jews, and as the Lamb of God, and as the Messiah, and as one who calls disciples. The Gospel of Mark presents one epiphany after another! And today, we meet Jesus in a new way.

Today, we meet Jesus, the exorcist. The one who has power over demonic spirits.

Back in the 1970's, when William Peter Blatty published his best-selling book, The Exorcist, many people were captivated by the subject of demon possession. Some, no doubt, took an interest because of a personal fascination for the strange and supernatural. Others saw in it a rationale - perhaps even a psychological diagnosis - for people whose lives are characterized by bizarre and sometimes evil behavior. But still others, immersed in our modern culture of scientific rationalism, angrily dismissed the book as nothing more than a return to faulty thinking.

Interestingly enough, many Christians fell into this last category.

We modern Christians are quite happy with our faith as a moral teaching, and as an ethic, and as a personal relationship with God through Jesus, and as a guide to personally fulfilling spirituality. We're okay with Jesus as the King of the Jews, and as the Lamb of God, and as our Messiah, and as the one who calls disciples.

But most of us want no part of Jesus, the exorcist. We don't like to talk about demons.

And yet, here in the early part of his ministry, where Mark is trying to help us discover the full extent of who and what Jesus is, we encounter this very revealing story. This epiphany.

Jesus stands up to preach. Suddenly, in the middle of his sermon, a man - a man the people say is tormented by an unclean spirit - stands up. The demon within speaks through his lips, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?" I like to imagine a voice like Darth Vader's and a head like Linda Blair's spinning completely around as the demon shrieks.

And Jesus, the exorcist, tells the demon to be quiet, and to come out of the man. And it does.

Now, there are several important epiphanies in this story, if you are willing to look at them.

The first is that salvation for Jesus means much more than just personal redemption. Salvation includes the overcoming of the demonic powers that hide within and around our lives, and that exercise significant control over us and others.

Walter Wink suggests that Jesus' battle with the demonic that day was much more than a case of personal exorcism. Rather, Wink says this was Jesus' first real clash with what the Bible refers to as the powers.

You and I know something about these powers. And their ability to control our lives. Sometimes, we refer to them as the powers that be. Dr. Wink writes:

In Woburn, Massachusetts, a corporation routinely dumps known carcinogens into a stream that is part of the public water supply. Children drink the water, developing much higher than normal incidences of leukemia. In Iraq, a dictator wages war against his own people in order to maintain his grasp on power. In China, a newborn baby is put to death simply because it is a girl, and even here in the west, a woman is denied equal career advancement simply because she is a woman. In Sudan, the Dinka people are bought and sold as slaves - traded at $100 a person. In America, children who cannot fend for themselves fall through an economic safety net defined and developed by those who have no idea about the reality of poverty. Somewhere else, a person is denied a needed bone marrow transplant because they don't have adequate health insurance. Throughout the third-world, people are caught in the cycle of poverty because of a lack of education, and the lack of education is caused by a lack of money, and the lack of money is caused by a national debt so immense that it can never be paid down.

Welcome to the world of the Powers.

Those who follow Jesus need to understand the power these powers have over peoples' lives. Jesus seeks to teach us that salvation is much larger than we might think. It's work is never complete just by coming forward at a crusade. There are some issues in our lives that cannot be settled that way. An alcoholic man may give his heart to Jesus, but that doesn't necessarily disarm the alcoholism that makes life hell for both he and his family. A poor woman may give her heart to Jesus, but that doesn't do anything about the power of poverty and its ability to rob her of life, kill her child in a drive-by shooting, and hold her and future generations deep within its grasp. A black minister may spend his life serving Jesus as an Episcopal priest, but that doesn't prevent a mistaken-identity drug raid on his apartment. After all, he is black, and some black drug-runner ran into the building where he lives. And all his years of faithful ministry and responsible choices cannot not give him back to his family when he dies of cardiac arrest caused by the sheer terror of the raid.

Epiphany number one in this story is that Jesus understands human life in a much deeper way than we do. Jesus knows that people are profoundly affected, influenced and shaped by forces far stronger than ourselves. Not everything can be resolved by our own choices and actions. There are powers that move in the background of life.

And, if we are going to be followers of Jesus, we need to come to grips with this important epiphany. For when you and I look out at the poor, the hungry, the despised, the rejected, how important it is to look deeply enough to discern what Jesus sees. There are powers that must be overcome and transformed for true salvation to come to them.

So the work of the Christian is not just to bring people to Christ. It is also to bring Christ to the powers that dominate the lives of humans.

Now, the second epiphany in this particular story has to do with location, location, location. Did you notice where Jesus encounters this demonic spirit?

Why, Jesus encounters this demon in church! You know, the powers love to go to church!

Last week, one of our members said that he's never been able to resolve in his own mind how it was possible for Christians to mount up Crusades against Muslims. Tens of thousands were killed. And the odd part of it is that the Crusaders considered this murderous invasion a holy cause. I told our church member, I don't understand it either.

And what about Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland? Where does the Bible instruct either Protestant or Catholic Christians to build car bombs?

And how ashamed we should be that the institution of slavery in America was supported and perpetuated by Christian churches! Churches whose leaders actually had the gall to use biblical passages to support their pro-slavery position. Its the same sort of thing that's going on today with the role of women in the church - there are passages galore that are used to oppose letting women respond to the genuine call of the Holy Spirit. And, its even the same justification we in the church use to divide ourselves. Oh, how we Christians love to hate each other, and we will find Bible passages to justify the divisiveness! Why, we will think of any excuse as to why it is better to divide and fracture Christ's body than to respond to the call to listen to each other with love and respect, and to join our resources in serving the needs of the world, and to become one so the world will see Christ.

You see, the powers have even infiltrated the Church!

So the second epiphany in this story is that you and I need to be careful as we grow in our Christian discipleship. We need to take care not to fall for the teachings of the powers. Teachings that sound good, teachings that appear biblical, but teachings that do immeasurable harm to what God is trying to accomplish. We need to know what the Gospel is, and cling ferociously to it, and boldly proclaim it. For when Jesus preached the Gospel that day, the powers were shaken.

And that brings us to the final epiphany in the story. What exactly was it that Jesus said? What was the message that got the powers so upset?

Mark doesn't tell us. He only notes that the people described it as "a new message", and one that 'had authority". And although the text doesn't relate what this new message was, we can look through the four Gospels and learn that Jesus often preached about the new.

For instance, once he said you can't put new wine into old wineskins. And by that, he meant that the days of the Law were over, and the day of Grace had come. You can't blend the Gospel of grace in which God's love is freely given with the religion of law in which God's love must be earned.

Later, at the end of his ministry, Jesus passed out bread and gave out wine. He said they were his body and his blood, and they are the sign of a new covenant - meaning the old covenant of Law was over and a new covenant of Grace had dawned.

And, at the same supper where he spoke of a new covenant, Jesus also gave his followers a new commandment. "That you love one another as I have loved you."

You see, the new teaching of Jesus is always about grace - God's freely-given, passionate, unstoppable, redeeming love for human beings no matter who or where they are!

Of all the things a Christian must be, the most important is a person of grace.

No wonder the powers get upset when Christians - out of love - not only lead people to Christ, but try to bring Christ to the powerful structures and institutions and systems that keep people from life as God intends.

We are called to love the poor, and to actively work to overcome poverty by creatively advocating grace! We are called to feed the hungry, and to work to infiltrate grace into the systems that cause it and sustain it. We are called to lead people to Christ, and to work diligently to bring Christ into the social structures that order life.

You may have heard that today in our world there is a movement afoot about saving the poor nations from the impossibility of paying off their debt. Some say we who have loaned them the money should forgive them their debts. It's called The Jubilee Movement named after the biblical concept of jubilee. After all, such an idea is what we pray every week when we recite the Lord's Prayer. There are others who work every day at bringing about public accessibility for handicapped people. The Good News of Jesus for mobility-limited people is not only the hope of a transformed heart, but the hope of a transformed world in which they can fully participate. And there are others as well who wake up every morning determined to bring the message of grace to every institution, every structure, and every domination system.

For Jesus speaks as one who has authority. His new message challenges the powers-that-be.

Friends, as you go into the world this week, try to understand the powers that lurk in the background of the lives of the people you meet. Be sure to anchor your life in the Gospel, and not fall for the teaching of the powers. And let your thoughts, your words, and your actions be clear and powerful instruments of God's amazing grace.